I met a woman at Knit Night who had also done low-carb. She said that my weight loss in the beginning was too much and that I had lost a proper amount of weight for how long I’ve been dieting. Well, good, but drat as well.

One thing that she talked about was eating when you had appetite instead of hunger. That if you wait until you are hungry, it is already too late. You should be eating when you are thinking, “Mmm, I could eat something now.” This is freaky to me, because I really don’t sense that. It’s why I was snacking like mad on peanuts the first few weeks. It just didn’t connect for me that 1) I was hungry, and 2) I should go eat something. I need to work on that.

The oddest part is when I feel like I want to eat something, but my stomach still feels full. I’m not sure what that’s about.

Over Thursday and Friday I was craving carbs immensely. It was very frustrating, since you aren’t supposed to have cravings. I wanted candy from Daz’s desk. I wanted candy at the pharmacy. I wanted candy but I didn’t take any. And then to see on Friday that I’m up 2.3 pounds when it’s been so hard and I’ve been good anyway? Argh!

***
Saturday, 24 July

On Friday I bought some of those strips you use to find out if you are in ketosis. Well, I am, although not much. I’m exactly the wrong person to be doing this, because I have NO color sense, but it’s between 15 and 40 and closer to 40. I wish it were digital so that I could just write down a number.

Saturday was Max’s birthday party. Originally, they were planning a barbecue and were going to make chicken. I pointed out that I couldn’t eat the barbecue sauce, so they decided to do hamburgers and hotdogs. Then it turned out to be too hot to barbecue, so they ordered pizza.

I made cheese poppers and guacamole (with cucumber slices for dipping for me) and fruit salad. People raved about the guacamole and the poppers. I had that and some tomato-mozzarella salad Laura made. I ate a slice of pizza by pulling the cheese off, but it was so thin there wasn’t much there. I didn’t have cake. I didn’t even want cake. I had 3 M&Ms, from a dish that was full of them. I think I showed remarkable restraint.

We left about 7:30 and even though my stomach still felt full, I felt hungry, so I stopped at Burger King and got a bunless burger. It comes with ketchup. I need to remember not to eat that part. Also, McDonald’s does better bunless burgers, especially in leaf lettuce.

I spent a lot of time talking to Mom, Lauren, and Laura about my diet. Lauren said she could see in my fact that I’d lost weight. Laura is very supportive. Mom had a lot of questions, like why could I eat poppers, after all they were full of cheese. Explaining is hard, but she’s being supportive instead of critical, which is a good thing.

Once I got home, I tested myself with the ketosis strips, and it was much close to 40. I thought I’d been OK.

***

Last night I dreamed I was eating muffins and cake and bread.

This morning my ketosis is much lower. I guess fruit and ketchup and 3 M&Ms is too much.